A continuing problem for motels and hotels principally, but sometimes for other occupied spaces as well, are guests that smoke in non-smoking rooms. Usually but not always, guests smoke tobacco, but other products, often illegal, may be smoked as well. The term “recreational smoking” is intended to include tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke, and other types of substances legal and illegal, smoked by persons to alter their mood or because of an existing dependency.
The problem also arises in schools where students smoke in rest rooms, etc., in facilities where smoking creates an immediate safety hazard, and possibly in other facilities as well. The problem is compounded by the fact that in motel, hotel, and rest room situations, camera surveillance is simply deemed unacceptable.
Regardless of the type of recreational smoking product involved, the cost to clean and sanitize a room or other space after a guest has illicitly smoked in it can run to hundreds of dollars. The possible allergic reactions suffered by later occupants of a room in which someone has previously smoked may require that cleaning the residues of recreational smoking on drapes, carpeting, walls, and furnishings be very thorough. Further, even if there is no health issue, a motel or hotel that holds out a room as “No Smoking” must assure its guests that that room has not had a previous guest smoking in it.
Even though terms of conduct for a guest may clearly state that no smoking is permitted in the particular room, a certain fraction of guests unfortunately believe that the requirement does not apply to them, or that they will not be caught if in breach of the requirement. Yet when illicit smoking occurs, it is difficult for the establishment to recover this loss from the responsible guest. The problems of proof and collection from the guest often make it simpler for the establishment to accept the loss.
One can thus see that a system that can reliably detect most incidents of recreational smoking within a space with few or no false positives would pay high dividends in first of all, allowing the establishment to impose immediate sanctions on the guest, and secondly, allow charging the costs of cleaning the room back to the guest on a credit card. Further, knowledge by a guest that a reliable recreational smoking detector is present in the occupied room will serve as a significant deterrent to recreational smoking in the first place.
Accordingly, a means for real time detection of illicit smoking with a high degree of accuracy is desirable. To date, such means are not available as far as is now known to the inventors.
Available smoke detectors for room and structure fires are not suitable for distinguishing the combustion products of tobacco and other recreational smoking from a real fire. Combustion products produced by recreational smoking typically differ only slightly from those produced by the structure and its contents during an actual fire.
Distinguishing recreational smoking combustion products from those of a real structure fire is therefore not easy. Yet, an establishment acting on a false positive will very likely create bad will on the guests' part toward the establishment. False negatives will allow a smoking guest to avoid detection. At the same time, the establishment must be respectful of the guests' privacy.
These problems and the constraints on solutions to them have created problems for the hospitality industry. But detecting in real time in a room, the presence of recreational smoking has proven to be difficult.